Still Painting Fetches $61.7 Million as Protesters Cry ‘Shame’

"1949-A-No. 1" (1949) by Clyfford Still sold for $61.7 million at Sotheby’s on Nov. 9. Source: Sotheby's via Bloomberg

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- An abstract painting by Clyfford
Still sold for a record $61.7 million last night, headlining
Sotheby’s biggest New York contemporary art sale in three years,
while protesters outside chanted “Shame on you!”

The $315.8 million auction at Sotheby’s York Avenue
headquarters also broke artist records for Gerhard Richter and
Joan Mitchell. Six floors below in the street, picketing art
handlers were joined by Occupy Wall Street protesters and
unionized musicians playing high-decibel Latin rhythms. Since
July 29, 42 handlers have been locked out by the publicly traded
auction company over a contract dispute.

“It demonstrates the growing gap between the haves and the
have-nots,” said New York art dealer Richard Feigen. “You see
people demonstrating out there, people are out of jobs and their
houses. And people in here are dumping millions into art.”

The sale, the biggest for Sotheby’s since May 2008, beat
the presale high estimate of $270 million, which excludes
commissions. Earlier in the day, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index
dropped 3.7 percent.

“Blue-chip global artists are properly recognized as part
of the diversification strategy,” said New York-based art
collector Larry Warsh. “Because of the supply and demand issues,
we see this tremendous pressure on pricing.’

The Still painting, “1949-A-No. 1,” shattered the
artist’s previous record of $21.3 million, achieved at a
Christie’s International sale in 2006. It sold to a telephone
bidder, represented by Lisa Dennison, Sotheby’s chairman of
North and South America. She won a bidding war against
Christopher Eykyn, a New York dealer who had a mobile phone to
his ear and his hand covering his mouth.

Denver Museum

The work was one of four Stills consigned by the City of
Denver that raised a total of $114.1 million for the endowment
of the Clyfford Still Museum, which opens in Denver next week.
The reclusive artist died in 1980.

Three of the works were completed in the 1940s and one in
1976. The top lot, in deep reds and velvety blacks, more than
doubled its presale low estimate of $25 million.

During his life, Still sold very little and frequently
rejected exhibition opportunities. His will stipulated that the
estate be given in its entirety to a U.S. city willing to
establish a permanent museum housing his work alone.

Richter’s “Abstraktes Bild” (1997) sold for $20.8 million,
beating his $16.5 million auction record set last month at
Christie’s in London. The 8.5-by-11-foot oil canvas, rich in
purple, red and blue, was one of eight abstract paintings by the
German artist from a private collection. Every painting exceeded
its high estimate.

Bacon Studies

“I wish I had some Richters,” said Miami-based
contemporary art collector Mera Rubell.

John Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting and
sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, placed the winning bid
for Donald Judd’s fluorescent red Plexiglas and stainless steel
sculpture, which fetched $4.7 million.

One of the evening’s high-profile casualties was Mark
Rothko’s “Untitled (Plum and Dark Brown)” painting from 1964.
Estimated between $8 million and $12 million, it found no takers.

Only in the rear of the salesroom last night, where bottled
water, brownies and cookies were dispensed to clients, could the
protesters’ drumming, whistling and chanting be heard.

Labor Dispute

Michael Sovern, Sotheby’s Chairman and a former president
of Columbia University, called the gap between the U.S. rich and
poor “outrageous,” but disagreed that the sale and protest
were a reflection of the divide.

“It’s a conventional labor dispute,” he said in an
interview at the sale. “It isn’t affected by the gap between
the rich and poor.”

Dealers and collectors were confronted by several dozen
protesters, who screamed “shame on you” at those who entered
the building.

“Nothing can a stop a collector,” said Barbara Annis, a
New York private dealer. “People believe in art and it goes up
and up and up.”